Random Back Issues #118 - Amazing Spider-Man #501

Careful, man. Doc Ock gets mean if you mess with his lady.

Been a minute since we looked at the JMS/JRJR Amazing Spider-Man run. This issue is mostly from Aunt May's perspective, as she talks with an unseen person about how she's adjusting to knowing Peter is Spider-Man.

The answer is, it's a process. She likes seeing Peter and Mary Jane back together, but she still leaves when Peter gets ready to change into the costume. It's easier if she doesn't have to see him directly, though she doesn't get much of a choice today, because her trip across town is disrupted by Spidey fighting the Shaker!

No, not the Shocker, the Shaker! In flashback, we see Peter reading about an experimental suit to go deep underground and mine with vibrations. The suit was stolen, and Peter figures if the thief is smart, he'll sell it overseas. But as he notes, 'smart and this guy dine at separate tables.'

We don't see any more of the news article because Peter clearly has more important business.

Unfortunately he couldn't spend all day making out with MJ, and he's not having much luck stopping Shaker. The suit's vibrations almost shake Peter apart when he lands on the guy, and it can vibrate webbing right off. Plus, the suit's tough enough that when Peter keeps a section of an apartment building from landing on the street by swinging it into the air and dropping it on Shaker instead, it doesn't do any good. Granted, the guy is too stupid to notice even if he got any damage.

Back with May, she admits it's difficult to adjust to the notion of how strong Peter is, when she spent years freaking out every time he got a cold or went out in the rain without an umbrella. Probably better  Peter never mentions all those times in the Silver Age getting the flu somehow neutralized his powers, but he went out in costume anyway.

So she's tried to focus on doing little things to help others, like Peter would. In this case, making some loud, obnoxious guy drop his cellphone before he starts cussing in front of children. Well, it's something.

Meanwhile, Peter's fight with Shaker has moved into a gymnasium. They hit a waterline and Spidey gets an idea. Risking the internal damage, he picks up Shaker and chucks him into a pool, then explains to a nearby kid? employee? something, that the vibration of the suit, in a confined space filled with water, will create a miniaturized series of tsunami-like waves, that will just keep rebounding off the pool walls to pummel Shaker until he shuts the suit down.

Shaker says he surrenders, but Spidey lets him get battered a bit longer. Although if the waves are still going, the suit's probably not turned off. Wouldn't surprise me if Shaker didn't know how. Guy says stuff like, 'disburse your moleculars.'

Battle over, Peter makes sure he's the first to call Aunt May on her new cellphone and invite her to dinner, and we see May was seated at the graves for Uncle Ben and Peter's parents. Well if that story about Richard and Mary posing as double agents for the Red Skull's still in continuity, he probably has the tombstone bugged. Great work, May.

{1st longbox, 114th comic. Amazing Spider-Man #501, by J. Michael Straczynski (writer), John Romita Jr. (penciler), Scott Hanna (inker), Matt Milla (colorist), Cory Petit (letterer)}

Random Back Issues #104 - Daredevil #267

We looked at an issue from just before this one 2 years ago. At that point, Kingpin's plan to use Typhoid Mary had pretty effectively burned Matt's life to the ground. Now, Daredevil's going to finish the job himself.

But first he's gotta go to confession. He finds his mother telling a group of kids about how God forgives everyone, even Lucifer, which one of the kids says makes God stupid. Matt's confession is an awkward thing, as he mentions his using violence to achieve his ends, his infidelity, his desire to kill his enemies. The priest is a barely defined void on the other side of the screen, eyes just dark holes, but he tells Matt he's being too hard on himself, that he needs to control the murder urges, and that God forgives.

Matt storms out, insisting he can't control himself, nor be forgiven. Well. Never mind, then.

DD protects Lance, the son of Bullet, who recently beat hell out of Daredevil as part of Typhoid's plan, from some bullies. He comes home with him, intending to kill Bullet. But an apartment filled with boxes of food and supplies meant to sustain Lance after the nuclear war he's sure is coming is so depressing it weakens Matt's resolve. He tries focusing on the details, or "the inches", to avoid the big picture. The big picture means confronting all the fucking up he did, the ruin his life's become. The ruin this kid's life is. Better to focus on how Lance uses bubble gum to fix gun mounts.

Bullet shows up by smashing through the front door. He and Daredevil fight a bit, Matt unable to unravel the contradictions of him wanting revenge on this hired killer, who also loves his son in some strange, stunted fashion. Lance fires a gun to get them to stop, Bullet apologizes (sort of) for beating Daredevil up, but it was 'just business.' DD shrugs it off, because Bullet is ultimately just that, a bullet. The one to be angry with is the one responsible for sending the bullet his way. So, time to go after Typhoid or Kingpin, right?

Wrong. Matt buys a train ticket out of the city, again trying to focus on just what he hears and smells around him, rather than what he's doing (running away) and why he's doing it (because he fucked up.) They pass a small plane crash in a field, and Matt, without thinking, jumps off the train to help. Romita Jr. used that same wide-legged posture earlier in the comic, when Matt leapt from the church steeple. Significance of leaping into new danger, maybe?

The guy he drags out is insistent on running back into the fire to retrieve bags of junk food and radio equipment. Well, I suppose nose candy is a type of junk food. Since Matt's blind, the guy figures he didn't see the cocaine that spilled from the bag, and why not offer him a job on his farm, to be neighborly? Sure, what's the worst that could happen?

{3rd longbox, 77th comic. Daredevil #267, by Ann Nocenti (writer), John Romita Jr. (penciler), Al Williamson (inker), Gregory Wright (colorist), Joe Rosen (letterer)

Random Back Issues #51 - Daredevil #263

Matt, you're going to get so much self-flagellation material out of this fuck-up.

It's a new year. Last year's purchases have been added to the boxes, some stuff has been culled, and things got redistributed a little bit, so let's see what we get randomly this year. First up, part of Daredevil's tie-in to Inferno!

We just missed the issue where Daredevil is nearly strangled to death by a demonically possessed vacuum cleaner, after Typhoid Mary had a bunch of people he'd fought recently kick the shit out of him. Then she took him to the hospital so she could twist the knife (figuratively) on Karen Page. Twisting the knife (literally) will be left to Mysterio. Karen flees and seems to embrace the demons' offer to fall back into her heroin addiction.

Matt gets up and running again on some instinct, after his possessed life-support equipment was either trying to save his life, or eat his heart. Maybe both. He's wrapped up like a mummy, down to his boots, part of his mask, and his costume is basically a pair of Daisy Dukes. But that's not gonna stop him, as he heads below the streets, where a subway train is possessed and ready to take a bunch of people to their next stop. No, not Shea Stadium, someplace even worse.

 

Elsewhere, Typhoid is rocking a nice new helmet and cape as she informs Fisk that Daredevil isn't dead. Kingpin's not too pleased, but Typhoid is, since she can kill him again. And, you know, she's sort of in love with him. Fisk insists she stay with him, and Typhoid just laughs. I appreciated the way that Fisk wanted Typhoid to turn Matt/Daredevil inside out, attack his heart, and while she did that, she also did it to Fisk, too. Now he wants Typhoid, the way Matt wants Mary. And Typhoid enjoys getting the reactions out of both of them.

 

She lets in a demon I don't think is Mephisto, who she describes as Wilson's boss. Fisk denies this, claiming that he's the boss. The demon counters that Fisk sold them his soul years ago. 'A small thing. A tiny soul - an intangible worthless thing - worthless to you, that is.'

Daredevil's attempt to use the controls to stop the Hell-locomotive predictably fails, so he climbs outside and tries to steer it via its horns. It works, and they reemerge on the surface, all the passengers carried gently back to Earth while the demon, a thing of 'A thousand eyes a thousand teeth a thousand horns and spikes a thousand horrors' grabs hold of Daredevil as they crash roughly in the street.

 

It spits hellfire at Matt, designed to burn the soul, little realizing the power of Catholicism means guilt only makes Matt stronger. As long as he can avoid confronting what he's guilty about, that is. DD takes it head on, his billy club growing as he does, until he hits the creature between a couple of its thousand eyes and sends it packing back below. Laying bleeding in the street, he's approached by one of the local kids, Butch, who tells him the legal clinic was closed by the cops, and that Karen's gone, her and Matt's flat burned. Butch is sure Matt betrayed her (true), and then vanished somewhere (not yet).

The next issue is unconnected to Inferno, about the Owl using a bunch of punks who think he's passe to rip off a bunch of cocaine shipments so he can get real wings, and a baby a bum found a few issues earlier getting caught up in. Drawn by Steve Ditko. I'm not doing the tonal whiplash justice, especially when they go back to Daredevil wandering New York in a haze, beating the crap out of demons in the issue after that. A couple of issue later, he does flee NYC for over a year. During which he fights the Blob and Pyro, kills the craziest Ultron ever, and fights Mephisto in Hell, among other things.

[3rd longbox, 54th comic. Daredevil #263, by Ann Nocenti (writer), John Romita Jr. (penciler), Al Williamson (inker), Max Scheele (colorist), Joe Rosen (letterer)]

Sunday Splash Page #123

"Who Needs Avengers?" in Daredevil #276, by Ann Nocenti (writer), John Romita Jr. (penciler), Al Williamson (inker), Max Scheele (colorist), Joe Rosen (letterer)

The end of Ann Nocenti's first year on Daredevil saw John Romita Jr. take over as regular penciler for the next 30+ issues, and the series moved into a longer story of Matt falling to pieces. You could say heck, Born Again was only 20 issues ago, do we need to see that again? I think the difference is we watch the fall slowly but steadily happen, rather than an almost immediate crash, and this time, it's partially of Matt's own doing. He knows he's digging his own grave, and keeps going.

This was the first lengthy stretch of Daredevil comics I really encountered, but doing so in dribs and drabs, the scattered issue here and there, makes for an odd experience. Matt goes from "ghost lawyering" a case against a chemical company that illegally dumped waste and blinded a child, to fighting Ultron. From trying to convince a group of kids not to idolize the two criminals running around robbing and beating people up on Christmas, to being trapped in Hell.

The Kingpin makes his move, deciding if taking tangible things from Murdock - his money, his home, his license to practice law - didn't destroy him, maybe taking intangible things - love, his faith in the legal system - will. There's also an element of jealousy, where Fisk doesn't have Vanessa any longer, but Murdock and Karen Page are back together.

Ultimately, Fisk is only 1-for-2. Kelco loses their case in court, despite all Fisk's attempts to use money and influence to destroy evidence or sway jurors. But using Typhoid Mary to destroy Murdock personally works perfectly. Matt falls for sweet, innocent Mary (and vice versa, which creates its own kind of frustrating trap for Typhoid), making out with her when Karen's not around. Daredevil is equal parts repelled and attracted by Typhoid, who loves to play the aggressor, taunt and confuse the vigilante. Matt wins the case, but is too trapped in self-loathing over how badly he's fucked everything up, how he's let down people who believed in him, to enjoy it.

He spends a couple of issues of Inferno tie-ins either nearly being strangled by a possessed vacuum cleaner, or walking around beating up demons like an automaton. Even if he's not giving in to his worst impulses like many others, he's too wrapped up in his own shit to see he's not really helping anything. Because he doesn't care.

Then Nocenti sends him scurrying out of New York, rather than sticking it out and trying to fix things. Granted, this isn't a new approach. Hal Jordan and Oliver Queen as "hard-traveling heroes", Superman walking across America, Steve Rogers traveling around as The Captain. It's a thing writers do, putting the hero in new settings to explore the character. But usually the character is trying to rediscover themselves, or connect to people. Matt Murdock just wants to run away from all his failures. Romita Jr. draws Matt stubbled and dirty, withdrawn and sour. The broad shoulders he gives everyone bow under the weight of just how badly Murdock's screwed the pooch.

Despite Matt saying he's not looking to help he anyone, he keeps coming across people who need it. A young telekinetic being hunted by the Blob and Pyro, both of them drunk off the free hand working for the authorities gives them. A young woman railing angrily at her father and the world, without really grasping what she's trying to accomplish. (Her name's Brandy, so for some reason when I first read some of the issues were her in them, I thought Nocenti brought in Rom's old love interest Brandy Clark. Wouldn't have been the strangest thing that happened.)

Brandy's father has scientists trying to create the "perfect" woman for him, who is, of course, an absurd combination of traits meant solely to please him, regardless of whether it makes any sense, or suits what she wants. The Inhumans show up, looking for Medusa and Black Bolt's kid. Dr. Doom sends the craziest Ultron (he builds himself a mountain out of the heads of previous Ultrons) ever after Daredevil to try and show up the Kingpin. Mephisto creates his own son, who then drags Daredevil and his little bunch to Hell, only to decide his father is stupid and wrong and that there's no point to what he wants to accomplish. That Mephisto is crying for attention, rather than actively trying to corrupt. Matt has to stop simply reacting to only what's in front of him, stop letting himself be sucked into the madness around him, and start actually thinking about what he's doing and why.

Romita Jr. draws Mephisto in a way I've never seen anyone else do, making him just vaguely human-shaped. Long fingers, no nose, a huge mouth with no teeth, hair more like giant quills. His son, Blackheart is, again, vaguely human-shaped, but just black all over with spines jutting in all directions. Most of the time Daredevil's in Hell, it's a snowy void until he actually reaches Mephisto, at which point it becomes the more conventional caves full of pits of fire and towering rock cliffs.

It's just an intensely strange run, and I love it. Matt fights weird stuff outside his typical wheelhouse. He's not grim and angry exactly, as he would get in so many later runs. He breaks, but rather than turn evil, he becomes more indifferent and cynical. He's exhausted mentally, to the point he seems to tune out conversations and just linger in his own world. Other times, all he can do is laugh, but it's not carefree, but the laughter of someone who gave up on doing anything. He doesn't figure it's worth trying.

The run feels very of its time, with a lot stories focused on environmentalism, whether that's pollution or confined animal feeding operations, and there's a fair amount of post-Cold War concern about nukes and humanity destroying itself that way. In Romita Jr.'s first issue, Nocenti introduces a government agent/freelance hitman named Bullet, who has a son named Lance who becomes a doomsday prepper after learning about the aftermath of using atomic weapons. Lance and Bullet are recurring characters throughout, the boy only going deeper into his attempts to cope with his fears, while Bullet can't find the words to help Lance conquer them.

Nocenti's not exactly a subtle writer much of the time, like the issue where Typhoid sics a bunch of other crooks on Daredevil, and he gets the shit kicked out of him in the middle of an anti-war protest march. Which then naturally devolves into a fight between opposing sides before scaling into a full-blown riot. Matt wanted to march for peace, and instead he's fighting and swinging at anyone who comes in range. Characters make speeches about how heroes may be like nukes themselves, or how they can't be acting for peace if they're always using violence. Extremely on-the-nose kind of stuff, which I imagine could be off-putting depending on the style of writing you like.

But there's an earnestness to it that speaks to me, and stilted dialogue doesn't necessarily bother me as long as I can tell what they're talking about, and it actually interests me. Some of it's probably nostalgia, but it really feels like these are things Nocenti's really interested in and trying to sort out her own thoughts about, and that makes it fascinating to me.

JRJR's art has continued to move in that more blocky, Kirbyesque direction it started in his time with Claremont on Uncanny X-Men. The characters are probably pretty by our standards, but they don't feel superhero comic pretty, if that makes sense. And that fits. Daredevil's dealing with a lot of people who are having hard times. Drug addicts, kids from broken homes, people living in poverty. Most of his enemies aren't gods or anything, they're angry people who grabbed whatever was at hand and turned it on others. Even Bullet, for all that he may work for the rich and powerful, is just a leg breaker at the end of the day.

Random Back Issues #32 - Amazing Spider-Man #400

Let's pause to appreciate the hilarity of the notion of the Spider-Clone managing to straighten anything out.

We get to look at an anniversary issue today, which means extra pages! Lots to discuss. Amazing Spider-Man #400 was notable at the time for finally, after I don't know how many heart complications, killing Aunt May. Of course, they later reversed this by saying it was actually an actress or something hired (brainwashed?) by Norman Osborn, and the real May was alive. Then the MC2 (Spider-Girl) universe went the opposite direction and said the "May" Osborn had abducted was Peter and Mary Jane's daughter. That always made more sense to me, and the fact the main Spider-titles went the other way, when they didn't know what the hell they were doing, would seem to back that up.

The issue Peter rushing to the hospital because Aunt May actually woke up from being in a coma for the last 10 issues or so. Peter's ecstatic, as is Ben Reilly, who only came back to NYC because of what happened to May in the first place, as he couldn't ignore his concern for her, even as he hates having Parker's memories. With the crisis over, Ben's at a loose end on what to do next. Peter hates having him around, and it's a mess for Ben to be in a place he has so many memories of, but can't do anything with, since they belong to someone else. Plus, Kaine's lurking, and Ben figures it's only a matter of time before he comes after Ben again.

Back in Queens, Mary Jane's been trying to get things ready for May's return, and May somehow sees this burst of activity and knows MJ's pregnant. OK, so "fetus radar" is a thing now? Using this power weakens May, and while MJ takes her upstairs to rest, Ben slips in the back door to speak with Peter. Which is how you get the two of them, in costume, talking in May's backyard in broad daylight. Brilliant, guys. Clearly all the clones are sharing brainpower. The more there are, the dumber they each get. Ben says he's leaving and they'll never see him again. Ha.

There's a few pages of random stuff, Peter and MJ watching old family movies, some crap with Judas Traveler I ain't even getting into, Ben having an identity freakout when a cop hassles him for dozing on a bus stop bench. Yeah, because there were so many people needing the bench. The next day, Peter and May visit the Empire State Building, where May reveals she's known Peter was Spider-Man for some time, and that she's proud of him. Then she gets tired and they have to go home, where she says it's her time and she passes away. Peter quotes some of Peter Pan that she read to him when he was a kid, and that her soul(?) repeated to him when he nearly died recently. In a story involving Doc Ock helping cure him of a virus the Vulture infected him with. There's no part of that sentence that makes any sense.

I love the contrast between Peter, who is grieving but at least has people to lean on, and Ben, who has absolutely no one and didn't even get to say goodbye. That continues to the funeral, where Ben has to visit alone, after the service, since it'd be kind of a problem for Peter to have a surprise twin present. Although Flash attended with a notorious cat burglar, so "surprise twin" might not be that strange.

After the wake, two cops show up at Peter's house to arrest him for a murder in Salt Lake City. Because they're dicks. Which doesn't do MJ's mental state any good, and then Ben shows up in her home saying they need to talk. Not that being confronted by an exact double of her husband minutes after he was arrested helps, either.

If I remember right, Kaine actually killed the person, the Salt Lake cop's crooked partner. Being a clone, he has Parker's fingerprints. By remarkable coincidence, the murder took place during the two weeks Peter was in a grave courtesy of Kraven. So he has no alibi that doesn't involve blowing his secret identity. I'm pretty sure Ben switches places with Peter in prison, or Peter breaks out for a time and then Ben turns himself in instead. Peter charges off to hunt down Kaine and bring him in. Which turns into a whole thing with more clones, that Traveler guy, and Doc Ock's girlfriend trying to kill Kaine for killing Otto (who would later be resurrected by the Hand, of all people).

Peter only gets Kaine to confess (Kaine ultimately explains it by claiming he had a grudge against Parker for. . . reasons, and altered his face and fingerprints to resemble him) by threatening to march into the courtroom and spill his secret identity, which would ruin his life. This was back when just Harry Osborn, Venom, and the Puma knowing Peter Parker was Spider-Man was a huge pain in the butt, unlike recent years when everyone knows who everyone is. Kaine thinks Peter's actually the clone and wants him to be happy (while hating Reilly who he thinks is the original Peter Parker), which is why he fesses up.

And now I have a massive headache. Goddamn it, Nineties.

There are two backup stories, both written by DeMatteis. The first (by the Romita Jr. and Sr. art team) focuses on Ben Reilly in the day or so after the first Spider-Clone story, as Ben comes to grips with the fact he's just a copy. He struggles to find some reason to continue, and fights against a morality he feels is imposed on him by Parker's memories. I think this backup story in particular forms the thing about Ben Reilly that makes him so interesting to me. That's there's so much that's a part of him he feels burdened by, because he can't reap any of the benefits that come with it. Remembering all of Parker's friends and loved ones, but not being able to have them as part of his life, because someone's already occupying that role.

The other story is by DeMatteis and scripted by Stan Lee, with art by the Grummett/Milgrom duo, and looks at the morning after Peter captured Uncle Ben's killer. When Peter has to come to grips not only with his guilt, but his aunt's sorrow and grief at being alone. He tries to boost her spirits by pointing out the killer was captured, getting ready to tell her he's Spider-Man. But May reacts angrily, declaring that Spider-Man just used Ben's death for his own publicity, and Peter should never mention him again. Yeah, Pete's not gonna pull that off.

He resolves he can't tell her, but he will someday. Even if you allow that the May that dies in this issue isn't her, Peter still never actually told her. She figured it out in the JMS/Romita Jr. run by letting herself into his apartment when he was too beat to shit to sense it, then confronting him a few issues later.

[1st longbox, 81st comic, Amazing Spider-Man #400, by J.M. DeMatteis and Stan Lee (writers), Mark Bagley, John Romita Jr., and Tom Grummett (pencilers), Larry Mahlstedt, John Romita Sr., and Al Milgrom (inkers), Bob Sharen, Paul Becton, and Chia-Chi Wang (colorists), Bill Oakley, Ken Lopez, and Starkings/Comicraft (letterers)]

Random Back Issues #27 - Amazing Spider-Man #58/499

I don't know what to focus on there. That Reed expects us to believe he says, 'In for a penny, in for a pounding,' or that Cyclops showed up in business casual. To be fair, it's not his worst uniform by a long shot. That blue one from his early X-Factor days, with the yellow X that went from the shoulders all the way down his body? Hideous.

It's Peter Parker's birthday, so of course New York is under attack by the Mindless Ones. A bunch of heroes tried to devise a science solution, but only succeeded in allowing Dormammu to reach their universe. Whoops. Dr. Strange shows up, outright tells them they got played, and declares he must face Dormammu alone. If he doesn't want the science heroes to mess things up, maybe he should try getting there on time. You'd think he'd be more alert to incursions by Mindless Ones.

Spidey is mostly trying to civilians clear of danger, but can't leave Doc to face it alone, especially when Dormammu's guys try to run interference. Unfortunately, this leads to the webslinger landing smack in the middle of whatever spell Strange was building up, and the two of them end up outside space and time. Double whoops.

Strange is a little snippy here, written with a kind or exasperated arrogance that makes me think JMS was watching a lot of House at the time. Strange is more polite than Hugh Laurie, but only slightly. He gets them back inside the universe, but the time side of things is still fluid, as they're moving between moments before Dormammu arrived, and after he's killed all resistance. Strange says they have to stay together, but Peter hears Mary Jane calling for help and rushes off.

He's unable to keep her from getting her neck snapped by a Mindless One - what is it with Parker's loves and spinal trauma? Felicia better watch out - and when he lunges forward, finds himself in a different time. Or times. He's both in the past, watching his high school self about to get bitten by the spider, and sometime in the future, watching an older version of himself await some special law enforcement team that's going to take him down for killing someone.

The next issue is the one where Peter has to fight his way back to the present through his entire life as Spider-Man, which leads to the double-page splash of him fighting a whole mess of his enemies over the years. The last few pages of that issue are drawn by John Romita Sr. In a couple of issues, he meets a guy who does tailoring for the costumed set who shows him a possible redesign that just so happens to be what his future self was wearing. John Romita Jr. has about 10 more issues to go before he moves to, actually, I'm not sure what he moved on to. World War Hulk eventually, but that's three years away. There was something else in there I'm sure. Mike Deodato is going to take over as artist from JRJR, and his first story will be Sins Past. Yikes. Nowhere to go but up from there, I guess.

[1st longbox, 108th comic. Amazing Spider-Man (vol. 2) #58/499, by J. Michael Straczynski (writer), John Romita Jr. (penciler), Scott Hanna (inker), Dan Kemp (colorist), Randy Gentile (letterer)]

Sunday Splash Page #16

"Mephisto Looks On With Interest", in Amazing Spider-Man #491 (or #50 of vol. 2), by J. Michael Straczynski (writer), John Romita Jr. (penciler), Scott Hanna (inker), Dan Kemp (colorist), Richard Starkings (letterer)

It's notable how much more common splash pages are by this point in time versus all those earlier runs. I had a lot more options for this. I considered the double-page splash of Spidey vs. all his foes from issue #500, but I liked this happy reunion.

I only own six issues of Amazing between Aunt May's death in #400, and JMS taking over as writer at issue #471 (or issue #30 as it was numbered at the time). One Onslaught tie-in, one from Howard Mackie's last few months on the book, and the Identity Crisis storyline. So I'm skipping that stretch.

JMS' run as writer was, especially in the stretch where he teamed with John Romita Jr., notable for adding more of a mystical element to Spider-Man's origin and powers. Drawing on spiders as a creature with a lot of mythology around them, and bringing in enemies that would prey on that, either the mystic aspect or the spider aspect. Some of it worked better than others. Each successive Ezekiel appearance was less effective than the one before.

JMS did reunite Peter and Mary Jane, after MJ had been "dead" for about 18 months our time, found, and then they separated. Although I've read Mackie was told to split them up after MJ was brought back, so JMS could write them back together again? Don't know if that's true or not. He made Peter a high school science teacher, although you could question how much he did with the idea. Aunt May learned Peter was Spider-Man, and there was a bit of time spent on her adjusting to that knowledge. (or re-learned, since she'd revealed she knew in Amazing Spider-Man #400). Other than Morlun, none of the villains JMS created semm to have any staying power. I thought a couple would have made interesting foils for other heroes, but oh well.

This is probably my favorite stretch of John Romita Jr's. art. He avoided that tendency he has to bulk everybody up. He got plenty of opportunities, as well as space on the page, to draw big fight scenes, with lots of rubble and smashed cars. He draws a pretty good bloody and tattered Spider-Man. The color work is also excellent, some lovely hues and shades of green and red at times. Especially during the chaos of some of the fights. There are images I can recall from those issues, I don't remember specifically what's going on, but I remember the colors of the scenes vividly.

After the two-part team-up with Loki, I only have two issues from the remainder of JMS's stint: One drawn by Mike Deodato Jr., the other by Ron Garney. The last year and a half of the book in particular, it was one long mess, going from The Other, to the seemingly endless and - thanks to Steve McNiven - frequently delayed Civil War tie-ins, to Back in Black, to One More Day. I am still extraordinarily glad I trusted my instincts and pulled the rip cord before OMD.

Sunday Splash Page #12

"A typical Tuesday for Spider-Man" in Amazing Spider-Man #231, by Roger Stern (writer), John Romita Jr. (penciler), Jim Mooney (inker), Bob Sharen (colorist), Joe Rosen (letterer)

The Roger Stern/John Romita Jr. run on Amazing Spider-Man is a little before my time, so I've doubled back around to it after the fact. I generally like Stern's writing, and Romita Jr. is drawing in a style more similar to Romita Sr. still at this stage, which is fine. 

(How much I like Romita Jr.'s later work seems to depend heavily on the inker, colorist, and just the project in general. Some books it works better to my eye than others.) 

I own bits of this run. This two-parter against Mr. Hyde, and the two issues before that, the iconic fight with the Juggernaut. Two issues when Stern brought back the Black Cat (although it seems like they mostly left that relationship to be handled in Spectacular Spider-Man). One issue where the Mad Thinker takes an interest in Spider-Man. Stern's last few, when the Hobgoblin tries a major extortion scheme and neutralizes Webs' spider-sense. Stern didn't get a chance to finish revealing the mystery of who the Hobgoblin was before he was off the book, though. 

Stern and Romita Jr. work the Spider-Man formula pretty well, mixing and matching the romance/job/school troubles with the superhero fisticuffs. I'm a fan of stories where Spidey has to punch out of his weight class, and they added a couple of solid entries to the list, the Juggernaut story being the more well-known. Romita Jr. knows how to draw a fight scene cleanly and with impact, and show off Spider-Man's combination of speed and agility.

The Clones Went Down To Utah

Spider-Man: The Lost Years (by J.M. DeMatteis, John Romita Jr., Klaus Janson, Christie Scheele, and Richard Starkings) was a mini-series released during the '90s Clone Saga detailing a particular part of the time Ben Reilly spent wandering the country after surviving the original Clone Saga. I thought it was going to cover a longer arc, show more brief snippets of his travels, but no. Ben drifts into Salt Lake City for awhile, meets a waitress with a secret named Janine, and the two fall in love. Ben starts consider staying around, and begins going out fighting crime at night.

Kaine's there, stalking Reilly, but meets and falls in love with tough cop named Louise Stockton. And for a while Kaine starts to think things can be better. So that shit can't last, and it doesn't, as Kaine ultimately commits a murder which ends up coming back to bite Peter Parker in the ass (right as he's mourning Aunt May no less).

DeMatteis is working on a theme about hope, with some characters having lost it, others wanting to lose it, and others trying to convince themselves they don't believe in it at all. Kaine bought in for a moment when he met Louise, but when things went south, he gave up. Part of the going south is his cellular degeneration kicking into overdrive, and that gives him a much more monstrous and tortured face. Janson goes real heavy on the inks, to the point that, combined with the wild hair Romita gives Kaine, you can barely discern his face.

You could argue whether Ben and Janine maintain hope. They opt not to trust that if they tell the police the truth things will work out alright, and it would seem things didn't end up working out somewhere down the line. They trusted in each other, but not in anyone else.

I've always thought of this as that time where Romita Jr. draws everyone really bulky, but here, it's more than everyone is wearing heavy clothes. Every shirt, coat, pair of pants has a ton of folds in it. I don't think it's set during winter, maybe early fall, but either Romita or Janson got too busy with the lines. Lot of shadows and darkness to the story, except for a few scenes during the day when Ben's working as a teaching assistant of spending time with Janine. Even at night though, the shadows recede from his face when he's with her, and the same is true for Kaine when he's around Louise, for a briefer stretch.

There are a few fight scenes, Romita keeps things up close, rarely pulls back. The panels are a tangle of fists and Kaine's hair and assorted rubble. They're personal affairs, the other people around aren't part of what's going on, because it's these few people struggling with themselves. Is Ben going to be the hero, even as he insists the power and responsibility thing has nothing to with him? Is Kaine going to give in entirely to his rage and hopelessness? There's nothing flashy, just basic, sold storytelling.


For as seemingly critical as Janine and Louise are to the two main characters, they don't get any internal monologue of their own. Even Louise's partner, Detective Jacob Raven, gets a lot of time devoted to his internal narration. That could be simply the story being told from the perspective of the survivors, but considering the two ladies' approaches to hope - one being afraid to, the other having simply abandoned the notion - and how they play off Ben and Kaine, it might have been nice to get some time with their thoughts. Even just as a contrast between what the guys are projecting onto them and whatever the reality may have been.

This Armor Wars Has A Lot Less Armor In It Than I Expected

I picked up a trade of the Iron Man: Armor Wars II trade, by John Byrne (writer), John Romita Jr. (penciler), Bob Wiacek (inker), Paul Becton and Joe Rosas (colorists), and Michael Heisler and Chris Eliopoulos (letterers) because I remembered owning issue #259 as a kid. Which involved Iron Man fighting the apparent ghost of Titanium Man, and also struggling with losing entire days he couldn't account for.

As it turns out, the "ghost" is actually the Living Laser, trying to prove this was the original Iron Man, so it would mean something when he killed him*. The lost time, meanwhile, is the result of A Alexander DeWitt, who took advantage of Stark suffering spinal damage sometime earlier to "repair" Syark's nervous system by actually replacing it with a parasite of sorts. One that enables him to remotely control or shut down Stark's body whenever he chooses. He's also doing this with the funding of Desmond and Phoebe Marrs, who were prominent adversaries in Byrne's Namor run for awhile, until I think the Punisher killed Desmond for being connected to coke dealers. But DeWitt hates Stark anyway, though Tony doesn't seem to have any idea who he is.

Stark gets around his body being hacked with a system to remotely control his armors through his thoughts. So even when his body is being controlled, if he's in the armor, he can still moving by controlling it mentally (since the suit is much stronger than his body), but this is putting a considerable strain on his body, and may end up killing him before he can deal with it. There's also a build-up to the Mandarin regaining his full power and unleashing Fin Fang Foom to help him conquer China, and James Rhodes trying to help Tony out, while struggling with his own fears about getting back in the armors again. That's a lot of stuff for 9 issues, at least it would be by today's standards.

The Marrs don't seem particularly important to the story, except maybe as an explanation for how DeWitt has the resources to manage this, but still not be someone Stark would be aware of. Answer: he's being bankrolled by someone else with the financial resources. But otherwise, they're largely irrelevant and only notable to me because I've read Byrne's Namor run (the first two years of it, anyway, when he was drawing it, too).

I think Romita Jr. came to this book immediately after leaving his run on Daredevil with Ann Nocenti. Bob Wiacek seems to go easier on the inks than Al Williamson did on that book, which gives the art a slicker feel. Not as heavy with the shadows, characters don't feel as thick, as weighed down. Which is appropriate for Iron Man, it probably should be a little glossier. Romita hasn't progressed to that point of making everyone really big and bulky that he would get to in a few years, although he seemed to make the boots of the Iron Man armor enormous, compared to how Mark Bright drew them when this model of the armor was originally introduced.

Byrne wisely gives Romita Jr. multiple either full-page or double page splashes for Fin Fang Foom, and Romita Jr. typically fills them with the dragon, to the point where any other figures are not much more than small, vague outlines of people. And the dragon still usually doesn't fit all in the panel, an excellent way to convey how enormous and powerful it is. Heisler and Eliopoulous also add the effect that Foom's speech bubbles don't have a little tail connecting them to his mouth. So it functions as almost a disembodied presence that is everywhere, a voice so large it seems to come from all sides.

The Living Laser design is mostly a featureless human shape. There's some Kirby crackle-like dots, and some shading that suggests the shape of the mouth or where the eyes are, things like that. But Rosas and Becton help by making it a very colorful battle. There are dozen or bright pinkish lines going all over most panels as the Laser goes all out trying to kill Iron Man (though at one point when Stark loses control of his body, the Laser lets him live because he doesn't want an "easy" win, which felt pretty weak). But the longer the fight went, the less distinct, the more blurred the Laser's features gets. There's more crackle, like he isn't maintaining as coherent a structure as he gets more pissed and pours more into the battle. It's a nice touch.

There's a bit in here where Stark hires a bunch of professionals to figure out what's wrong with him, and when they all pronounce him fit, is positive they're wrong. Not simply because of the strange paralysis, but because, as he puts it, he was an alcoholic for years, and that had done all sorts of damage to his body. Damage which couldn't have all simply vanished. Which isn't something I feel like is addressed much in Iron man comics. There's frequently references to Tony's drinking, how it cost him his company, how he struggles against temptation, the "will he/won't he" in moments of stress. Don't usually see a lot about the physical toll that I can recall, which is curious given how long the comics relied on Tony's heart condition as a way to generate jeopardy. Maybe Byrne was trying to bring that back in a new form, or maybe he was annoyed Micheline had Tony shot and put in a wheelchair, then gave him some super-science escape clause 5 issues later. So he turned the cure into a trap.

Or maybe the two of them had that planned all along. I don't know.

The subplot about Rhodey struggling with whether he could get back in the armor didn't work quite as well as I'd hope. Maybe because I came into this knowing Rhodey is going to don armors a lot in the future. But part of it was that when he does come to Tony's rescue, the suit he's wearing looks so similar to Tony's, I thought at first Stark was remote controlling another suit while mentally controlling the one he was in. Granted there's dialogue coming from the rescuing suit, which should have been a big tip off, but it just didn't land as well as I think it was meant to.

Also, reading this story arc, I found out James Rhodes is meant to be smaller than Tony Stark. Which is not how I've ever pictured them. Go figure. Also, I think the armor design Romita comes up with for the suit DeWitt ultimately fights Tony with, got cribbed/homaged/stolen by whoever was drawing Bloodstrike. There was a giant robot/cyborg guy called Shogun that looked a lot like the design here (especially the lack of feet, just big, round cylinders for legs). Oh, it was Rob Liefeld, what a surprise, he said completely insincerely. At least the head regions on the two designs are different.

Overall, not exactly what I was expecting, and certainly not as much armor warring as you'd expect with the title, but not bad. I appreciate that the Laser trashing Stark Industries is independent of the other problems, rather than it all being interconnected. Sometimes a lot of random bad shit can happen all at once.

*This was back when they were still maintaining the old line about Iron Man being Stark's bodyguard, and that the Iron Man at the time of this story was a new guy, replacing the one who supposedly went rogue and was killed in the first Armor Wars story.

31 Days of Scans - Favorite Friendship

You may have noticed by now these aren't scans, but photos. Someday they'll be scans, someday.

Anyway, I strongly considered Steph and Cass here, but I'm pretty sure I've gone on at length about those two several times. So in the spirit of not retreading over entirely old ground, let's discuss two good buddies, who are themselves a mismatched pair. One, a devil-may-care adventurer, the other more grim, a living weapon.

Beer will be a recurring theme.

Despite the likelihood that we'd be attacked by ninjas, or Omega Red, Kurt and Logan are still the two comic book friends I'd most want to hang out with, if only because I think we'd have more common ground to discuss than I would with Steph/Cass, or say, Booster/Beetle, even if I don't drink. Kurt could help me polish my German, and I think we all like to play pool and avoid large crowds, so there you go.

I enjoy how even though they're very different people, with different outlooks, this makes each one kind of well-suited to helping the other through personal problems. Kurt has a tendency to navel gaze, to obsess over past mistakes or choices. I think Logan, because of how long he's lived, and some of things he's done, recognizes that while self-reflection isn't a bad thing, there comes a point when you simply have to accept the decision you made and make the best of it.

At the same time, Logan struggles with the gap between who he wants to be, and the man he frequently is. He doesn't want to be someone who fails to protect people, and is only good for avenging them by brutally hacking to pieces their killer, but that's how it ends up going a lot of the time. And that eats at him, that he keeps falling back into old patterns, whether they're ones shaped by choices he made, or that Weapon X made for him, and maybe that's who he is. Kurt, though, has a hopefulness about people that enables him to believe that Logan is gradually moving towards who he wants to be. So he lets Logan let it out, and then he explains what he thinks, and Logan can accept it or not.

Logan's seen enough not to be bothered by Kurt's appearance, and Kurt's seen enough actions motivated by blind hatred to recognize that isn't the case with Logan. They both like to fight, albeit at a somewhat different level of intensity. Logan prefers brawls, Kurt likes something with a little more flair and style, but it works out. They'll both play wingman for each other, or conversely, help the other keep things casual with a lady friend. And there's only one guy Logan trusted enough to bring beer for his wedding to Mariko. Marriage that never happened, but the point remains, he asked Kurt.

Also, I love Uncanny X-Men #183, where Kurt and Logan give Colossus the business for how he broke up with Shadowcat, then let Peter get his ass beat by Juggernaut. Logan does most of the talking, and you think Kurt's just there to make sure it doesn't turn into a fight. But then Kurt keeps chipping in with brief comments to keep Peter's head on a swivel. And I like the placement on the page at the end, as Logan gets to the point of why they think what Colossus did was a shitty thing. Logan's still doing all the talking, but Kurt's the one standing closest to a kneeling Colossus, completely in shadow. It makes it feel like Kurt's glare is weighing Colossus down, so he doesn't have to say anything.

Edit: Forgot to give credit where it's due. First panel is from Uncanny X-Men #211, Chris Claremont (writer), John Romita Jr. and Bret Blevins (artists), Al Williamson (inker), Tom Orzechowski (letterer), Glynis Oliver (colorist). Second panel is from Nightcrawler #3, Claremont (writer), Todd Nauck (artist), Rachelle Rosenberg (color artist), Cory Petit (letterer). Third panel is from Wolverine #6, Greg Rucka (words), Darick Robertson (pencils), Tom Palmer (inks), Studio F (colors), Rus Wooton (letterer). Last panel is Uncanny X-Men #183, Claremont (writer), John Romita Jr. and Dan Green (artists), Tom Orzechowski (letterer), Glynis Wein (colorist).

That Cat Can Cross My Path Anytime

I picked up some trades online recently, one of which was Spider-Man vs the Black Cat. It says Volume 1, but as far as I know, this was the only volume. I figured I like the Black Cat, but I'd never read a lot of her early appearances.

It collects three different two part stories, Amazing Spider-Man 194-195, 204-205, and 226-227. Marv Wolfman wrote the first three issues, Roger Stern the last two, and David Micheline wrote issue 205, which is kind of interesting given how it ends.

Throughout issues 204 and 205, Felicia has been stealing various priceless works of art, all of them with some sort of love theme. A gold statue of entwined lovers, an Eros Ruby, stuff like that. She keeps getting away from Spidey, but the last time he managed to plant a tracer and he tracks her to her apartment. He thinks she's gathered all these as some tribute to her deceased father, but it appears as though she's actually taken them to show her affection for Spidey himself. She thinks he loves her, 'just like daddy'.

I have to say, that little revelation flabbergasted me. I knew Felicia looked up to her father, trained to become a great thief, just like him, but this was a bit different. Saying her affection for her dad twisted into something similar for Spider-Man, like a surrogate Electra complex. The fact the story switched writers midstream makes me wonder if that's what Wolfman intended or Micheline made the decision himself.

At any rate, as creepy as I found that, Roger Stern thankfully came along and said that was just a trick Felicia played on Spidey. She figured that would convince them to send her to a psychiatric hospital, which would be a hell of a lot easier to escape from than a real prison. Heck, maybe the writers intended that all along. I've read a few issues from Micheline's Amazing Spider-Man run Felicia was in, and he never brought up the conflation of Spidey with her father. Or it could simply be he saw nobody else that wrote her liked that idea and decided it was better off dropped.

That it was a trick would fit. One thing that comes up a lot in the trade is Felicia pulling the wool over Spidey's eyes. Whether it's her bad luck "tricks" (she didn't have bad luck powers at this point, it was all about prepping things to go wrong), the flirting, playing possum, pretending she'll go straight, she consistently tricks him. I think it's a combination of her studying him for a long time, and also being a decent judge of character. She can tell he's a real do-gooder, that he doesn't like fighting women, and that he is interested in her. And she uses all of it to her advantage. So playing on his sympathy as part of a longterm strategy to avoid jail doesn't sound too farfetched.

It's remarkable how many subplots are going on simultaneously with the Black Cat stuff in these issues. I read enough older comics it shouldn't be a surprise, but then you read the current stuff and it's quite the difference. In the first two stories, Aunt May's in a nursing home being menaced by some thug, Peter's caught in some love triangle with Betty and Ned Leeds, and he's kind of being a tool towards Flash and Harry Osborn (not that Flash doesn't have plenty of that coming for the high school years). Plus, we get to see Felicia recruit her own gang for a job, which is a somewhat different way of doing things for her. Though now that I think of it Jen van Meter gave her a crew in that outstanding Black Cat mini-series a couple years ago. The second two-parter has Jonah wandering the town an amnesiac, plus Peter almost starts a relationship with a one of his students. Fortunately she revealed herself as a thief before Pete could get in trouble for unethical behavior.

Keith Pollard does most of the art for the first 4 issues, with Pablo Marcos handling finishes on one issue. I'm not a huge fan of the Pollard work. Most of it is OK, but then there are some times when Spidey looks very strange. Misshapen head, the body parts looking like they aren't actually connected. Just very awkward. The Romita Jr. and Jim Mooney work on the last two issues is a lot stronger. I think this is early enough that Romita Jr.'s style is still strongly his father's, which is fine. I like Romita Jr.'s current style at least some of the time, but there's nothing wrong with drawing like John Romita Sr. I don't know whether it's Mooney's inks of Bob Sharen's colors, but they do some really strong work with the shadows on Spidey. I especially like it when they put him shadows and show the weblines on his costume by making them red, instead of the usual black. They flip the colors, basically. I don't know why I like that look so much, but it always catches my eye.

Testing, testing. Did I Figure This Out?

This is a test of Calvin's ability to properly add images. Having finally noticed the blogger help link, it's time to try adding images.

This is from the 2nd volume of Amazing Spider-Man drawn by John Romita Jr. It's one of my favorite covers of all time. There's something about, I can't decide whether he's beaten down by the responsibilities of being Spider-Man, or whether he's the imposing figure, watching and protecting his city, regardless of the conditions. Either way, it's damn cool.